recipe

I’ve been back to work for a few days now. The first day was ROUGH. I was absolutely, bone-tired exhausted. I forgot just how much surgery takes it out of you. It takes awhile to feel back to normal. I’m not quite there yet. I definitely needed a nap on Monday and wished I’d taken one on my lunch break! But I got to work and blinked and somehow it was 12:30 and I’d missed my morning break and it was already lunch time.

Thankfully I work from home on Wednesdays, so I was able to sleep in a bit before getting to work. I love my Wednesdays! I’m supposed to be clear to start doing cardio in a few days. Part of me misses it and is it ready to get back to it. And part of me really wants to just sleep. LOL. We’ll see how I feel in a few days!

In other news, I’ve finished a few books but not enough to do a book update. Soon! I’ve been watching a lot of TV on my time off for my surgery. I finally got caught up on some shows that I had fallen behind on (I never have time for TV). I am currently working my way through season 3 of Outlander. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s actually really good. I love historical period books/shows so it’s right up my alley. I read the first few books in the series but then quit. But I do love the TV show.

I wanted to share a recipe that I sort of created that was really good. I adapted it from two different recipes but based it on this recipe Zucchini Pasta with Chicken & Pistachios. I made some adjustments to make it keto-friendly.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons butter

1 cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

minced garlic (I used 3 medium sized cloves)

minced mint leaves (about 7 leaves)

1/4 cup chopped pistachios

Boneless, skinless chicken (I used chicken thighs)

Zoodles (We used 3 small zucchinis to make the zoodles)

Salt and pepper

Chopped green onion for garnish

Make the zoodles (We used our Kitchenaid Mixer attachment, which is AMAZING, for making zoodles). Set aside. Chop the chicken into small, bite size pieces. Cook the chicken in a skillet with ghee, salt and pepper. Then in another skillet, cook the zoodles in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper.

For the sauce, melt the butter in a small sauce pan, add the garlic. Add the heavy cream, stirring constantly. Add the mint and lemon juice. Stir constantly. Then mix the chicken, sauce and zoodles all together in one skillet.

Divide into pasta bowls, top with chopped pistachios and green onion as garnish.

It turned out really well! I liked it a lot and would definitely make this recipe again. I like the flavor and texture combos. I think next time I would use salted pistachios (I only had unsalted). I loved the sauce. The mint was a really nice, unusual flavor. It all worked really well!

In my last post, I described the post-operation life. It was kind of a fog of pain, pain pills, healing, sleeping….carbs! I didn’t go crazy. It wasn’t like I could really eat a ton anyways. But I did eat carbs for about a week and a half.

But then after my post-op appointment with my surgeon, I was feeling better getting the stints out of my nose and decided to get back to the diet. It was a pretty easy transition back to Keto. I went to the grocery store (my one activity of the day! Still taking it easy) and got the essentials and then I was back on the plan.

First day back, I had scrambled eggs with cheese and Canadian Bacon and my coffee with MCT Oil, Stevia and heavy cream. Lunch was sautéed kale, andouille sausage, and smoked gouda. Afternoon snack was raspberries. Dinner was zoodles with Alfredo sauce and meatballs. Dessert was dark chocolate with strawberries. My first day back I was at about 1400 calories and 35 net carbs (because of all the fruit I had I guess). But I’m happy to be back at it!

As for exercise, I am not cleared yet. My surgeon said in about two weeks I can start getting back to easy cardio. I will start with the elliptical since it’s low impact. I’m kinda afraid to try running so I’ll wait a full month to try that.

For swimming and weight lifting I have to wait a full month post surgery.

I can’t smell or taste much. It’s better with the stints out but it feels like I have a very bad cold or something! It’s kind of a bummer but I know it will get better.

For dinner the other night, I made this recipe: Kofta Ground Beef Bowl . I used cauliflower rice. Topped it with the kofta beef. Then used Trader Joe’s Tzatziki and crumbled feta. I added grape tomatoes and cucumber slices.

Since I can’t taste much, I have to go by what Michael says and he said it’s a keeper. 🙂 He said it would be better with lamb and more garlic, but overall it was good!

I got back to work on Monday. It will be good to get back into the routine and back to “real life”, modified as it is. But it has been nice being home for two weeks taking it easy, healing, resting, catching up on TV and just not having a schedule!